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Nicolas, you wrote:
"Well, one significant aspect is that thanks to those shipwrecks
instruments only known from literature every now and then literally
emerge from the seabed. Good examples of this are the wreck of the
Kronan (cross-staff with spoon shaped vanes) and the Kennemerland (part
of a hoekboog, or double triangle as it is called in English).
Instruments from shipwrecks also show early developments in them as
normally those instruments would soon be discarded. The number of
surviving instruments from early periods are still increasing. If you
check Stimson's work on the Mariner's Astrolabe you will see that thanks
to marine archaeology the number of surviving astrolabes doubled over time."
Fascinating. Thanks. One item that surprised me about the wreck site of
Shovell's flagship, the Association, was that several watch faces were
recovered. There's a photo of one of these in "Admiral Shovell's Treasure
and the Shipwrecks in the Isles of Scilly" by McBride and Larn. This is a
thoroughly researched book and well-documented, given that the authors are
not professional historians. I was aware that hand-held watches were common
enough by the mid-18th century, but I was surprised to learn that they were
already in use in 1707 (admittedly aboard a very well-equipped vessel).
-FER
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